She nods. "That makes sense, yeah. I certainly wouldn't want to never hug Aunt Rachel again, even if it somehow became unpleasant.."

“I’m really glad you have an Aunt Rachel. I think most people whose parents are unsatisfactory in some way don’t have an Aunt Rachel.”

"Yeah... I'm really really lucky to have her in my life." 

Eventually:

"Do you guys want to try to figure out how to take showers this week or just catch up on that once you're awake?"

“…Wow I kind of hate both of those options.”

She thinks about it for a while. "I think I want to shower? It's nice to not be dirty. Hard to tell, though."  She shrugs.

 "...probably I would need help to avoid getting, uh, trapped by my backlash?"

"Yeah, though I think in your case just giving you instructions to fall back on in advance might work?"

“…We could do a call-and-response thing. Like, I would be fine with monitoring or beings monitored from the other side of the shower curtain, we could check in periodically to make sure things are copacetic.”

"Sure, but then you need a plan for what happens if you stop responding."

She frowns. "Yeah, my backlash is a lot more convenient for that than yours..."

“I’m more willing to court naked wet embarrassment as a failure mode if something goes wrong than as, you know, the default expected outcome. If I stop responding open the shower curtain and, uh, check if the problem is backlash or if I’ve managed to hit my head or something?”

Cara nods. "What should we do if it's backlash?" 

“…Maybe see if you can get me to put on a towel or something, but like, I am pretty fortunate in that my backlashed self will pretty reliably grab onto guiding that is presented to me.”

hmm...

"I'm also fine with, like, wearing a blindfold and swim trunks and being a Convenient Source of Guiding without observing you? If that helps any?" 

“A blindfold genuinely might help but if I put my tits on your skin without any intervening fabric, not being able to see it does not one hundred percent solve the problem.”

Cara blushes a fair bit at this. "Oh! Yeah, that's a good point. I'm fine with being blindfolded, though, and maybe Haru can help with the towel if you are too backlashed to do it on your own?" 

"Am I also blindfolded in this scenario?"

“You know, if I had anticipated this conversation, I would have just packed a swimsuit.”

"It is possible to retrieve you a swimsuit. Or buy one."

“Fair. Uh, I do have a swimsuit, in my dorm room, I don’t think it would be necessary to get a new one.”

"I can ask Paula to send a gofer and tell your roommate to expect one, if you remember where it is. What about you, Cara?"

"I have swim trunks at my place and would vaguely prefer wearing them or borrowing a pair of yours when backlashed around you two" because she really doesn't want to make things weird on accident "but I'm already topless around the two of you all the time anyways." She shrugs. 

"If I shower first, I'll guide Lucy more effectively, right? Oh, and maybe we can guide each other a little bit through the curtain, if that sounds ok?" 

"Yes, if you shower first you'll pick up backlash, I can hug Lucy and then you can come out and she can be in the middle for a bit and hopefully wind up low-backlash enough to get through a shower without incident. But getting the swimsuit's no big deal."

“That sounds fine. My swimsuit is on the right hand side of the top drawer of my dresser. I think I have a picture of it.” She starts looking through her phone. “Why trunks?”

ughggghh it's fine, it's fine 

"They're what I'm used to wearing, I guess?" She shrugs.